When I was going through school, I received many therapies to help improve my communication, social and cognitive skills. Among the services I received included occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech services and applied behavior analysis. All of those therapies helped me succeed in and out of the classroom, except for my speech services in kindergarten. I will go through each of the services during my school years and mention what the positives entailed for me, and how staying consistent with each one is crucial for any autistic student.
OT
I did OT from preschool right through sixth grade. During my services, I did everything from penmanship to completing puzzles and tasks, with an emphasis on buttoning shirts and tying shoes. With my penmanship, I would work on writing upper and lowercase letters, both in regular print and cursive. Then, I would work on writing complete sentences, both in print and on the computer. Along the way, my therapists would show me the proper ways to button a shirt and tie my shoe. They would give me a shirt with buttons on it to practice putting the buttons in at the right locations. After practicing several times over the years, I got the hang of buttoning shirts. From the beginning, one of the struggles I had was tying shoes. I had practiced with shoelaces on a board before turning to an actual shoe my therapist had or my own sneakers. I didn’t master the shoe tying as I did with the buttoning, but I got more practice as I went along. My therapist would tell me to make rabbit ears with the laces, then have the rabbit go through the “hole” or the opening in the middle to tie the laces. By the time I was in fifth grade, I was starting to get the hang of tying in the correct format, and in sixth grade, I had mastered it. It was at that time when my therapist had told me that I had “graduated” from OT, and I got a certificate saying that I successfully completed my services. My therapist would visit on occasion when I was in middle school in seventh grade to confirm that I still had the shoe tying down pat, and I did. Having OT was a tremendous help to build my writing and cognition for completing various activities and puzzles. I’m thankful for each therapist I had over the years, and they all helped improve those skills each time I practiced.
PT
In preschool through first grade, I had PT services because of low tone in my upper body. At that time, I wasn’t able to successfully complete motion activities including swinging on a swing, riding a tricycle and throwing a ball. When we were living in Connecticut, my parents paid for a physical therapist that made the experience fun. His gym had adaptive equipment, including a motion simulator that recorded my jumping jacks. He helped with my throwing and swinging, as well as doing exercises such as sit-ups and pull-ups. After my three years of PT, my tone skills had improved and I could do those exercises and activities with no significant factors getting in the way. I had a supportive therapist who made sure I achieved progress with improving my skills, and he encouraged me every step of the way to make sure I thoroughly could perform each exercise and activity.
Speech
I had speech services from preschool right on through high school. Especially when I was younger, the focus of speech was for understanding words and their appropriate usages, as well as pronouncing sounds such as “ch,” “sh” and “th.” It took some for me to master my “th” sounds, but by the time I finished third grade, my practice had paid off. From fourth grade until graduation, my speech services were about social skills and knowing the right protocols for moving forward with a conversation. We learned about the questions to ask family members and friends, such as “how was your day?” and “what are your plans this weekend?” We also learned about the polite and correct responses for any questions, and having the right amount of emotional intelligence based on how the other person is feeling.
When we moved from Connecticut to New Jersey, which was my transition from preschool to kindergarten, my speech services took a lapse. I took all phrases in a literal manner, so when my preschool teacher would tell me to “be quiet,” I would interpret the message as whisper and talk quietly instead of not talking and listening. Unfortunately, the New Jersey elementary school did not have a speech pathologist on staff, which caused my skills to slide. The literal interpretations from preschool caused me to whisper all throughout kindergarten, and I didn’t develop any close relationships to any of my classmates. I ended up getting speech services outside of school, and I had to continue them through the summer so I could have them in a good place before I started first grade. It was challenging and frustrating for my parents to see my speech services lapse, and they did everything they could to fight the district to put a speech pathologist on staff. As I got the outside support, my speech skills improved, which put me in a better place as I got ready for our move to Massachusetts where I was in grade school from first grade onward.
ABA
I had ABA services from first to sixth grades. During the school year, I would go once a week; during the summer, I went two to three times every week. When I went for ABA, the focus of the services was to improve my social skills and understand the appropriate reactions to particular situations. For social skills, we would do icebreakers and small talk to ask questions and come up with follow-up questions based on the answers, or similar questions related to the topic. We also played board games for the pleasure of it and to understand the concept of if you don’t win it’s not the end of the world. We played fairly and took turns to show the fair aspects of playing, which showed us the ways of how to handle winning or losing or getting a question right or wrong. The therapists would use a reward system for when we performed well in a conversation or handled winning or losing a board game appropriately. They would give us M&M’s and Skittles for our good behavior, which worked well with us and motivated to do the right thing to earn them.
The ABA therapists also discussed the philosophy of understanding the significant events we may face in our lives. They discussed more severe and less severe scenarios with us, the latter of which they called “glitches.” Glitches were things such as waiting in a long line, not getting the same booth at a restaurant, an event date switch that could be easily rescheduled and other minor inconveniences that could be easily resolved. Meanwhile, other more serious events, such as a car crash, hospitalization or health emergency were not glitches because of their circumstances. Those events may be harder to resolve, which can lead to understandable stress and upset emotions. Since glitches are easy fixers, the therapists told my group that there is no reason to be upset or throw a tantrum if the events happen because they are easy to fix and don’t constitute major setbacks. When I was that age and younger, nearly every emotional outburst I had was due to a glitch, and the support I got showed me the right and appropriate responses to handle those situations. The support I got from ABA made me understand the impact of how to react to any situation, which has helped improve my emotional intelligence to others, regardless if it means a change in plans or routine.
Each therapy did an excellent job improving my skill set in the given area. My parents were amazing in picking out the right services and working with schools to make sure I would succeed in all that I would succeed in each category. Getting these services at an early age can help any autistic child improve his or her school, cognitive and interpersonal skills. Support and encouragement go a long way to help with accomplishment, which is what helped me do well in what I did with each therapist.
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